Activist Josh Fox‘s message for New Yorkers, for Wells Fargo, and the Oil Industry, is shown in the above video in its entirety, he is the director of ‘How To Let Go Of The World And Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change.’

Today activists from NYC joined in solidarity with members of the Native American community, singing songs, and leading crowd chants like, “Defund DAPL in the Big Apple,” outside The Waldorf Astoria building where Big Oil execs gathered for a meeting on their pipeline goals.

All of this comes on the heel of The Army Corp of Engineers announcing that they were denying the easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline, effectively halting construction of the pipeline to conduct an environmental study (something that should have been done in the first place.) After months of peaceful protest and enduring the brutalization and illegal practices of human rights violations by the North Dakota law enforcement, the Native Americans of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have prevailed at least for now. The victory was celebrated at Standing Rock and across the country. However, there is still major speculation that the pipeline will continue after the environmental study is completed. There is the likely chance that once President elect Donald Trump takes office in January, he will resume construction of DAPL or that the investors will decided to continue building and accrue the fines for building without permits.

Wells Fargo organizes an annual conference for oil and gas pipeline investors, called the “Wells Fargo Pipeline, MLP, and Utility Symposium.” This year’s gathering – the 15th annual – takes place at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria on December 6th-7th. The keynote speaker “will address the growing challenges of building new pipeline infrastructure including rights of way, eminent domain, environmental impact and governmental approvals,” according to the brochure. Wells Fargo is one of the top investors in Dakota Access Pipeline and has earned a reputation as “Big Oil’s biggest banker” owing to its cozy relationship wtih the oil industry, including DAPL owner Energy Transfer Partners.Wells Fargo is the US’ most controversy-laden bank of the moment, owing to the revelation that it reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in extra profits by opening roughly two million bogus customer accounts from 2011 to ’15. The fact that it is the Dakota Access Pipeline’s second largest financial backer, with $467 million invested to date, is therefore an attention-grabber in itself. But Wells Fargo also acts as Energy Transfer Partners’ so-called “administrative loan agent,” the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings show, giving it a qualitatively greater role in fueling the pipeline than any other bank.

Wells Fargo performs all record-keeping associated with all of ETP’s loans, handles the interest and principal payments made in connection with those loans, and monitors their ongoing administration. In other words, all bank financing ETP receives passes through Wells Fargo.This relationship did not emerge in a vacuum. In 2014, Wells Fargo assumed the mantle of Wall Street’s top oil and gas banker, having more aggressively ramped up its investments than any other following the 2008 economic crash. One of Wells Fargo’s executive vice presidents, Mike Johnson, bragged about the San Francisco-based banking giant’s top role in fueling these planet-cooking sectors at a 2014 investors conference, and industry analyst Thompson Reuter has also made note of it.

Please visit DeFund DAPL if you’d like to divest today and need some guidance on how to do so.